Running Wild

It’s February 2000, tropical Cyclone Leon-Eline collides with the Mozambican coast and in forty-eight hours the Limpopo River breaks its banks. It has risen eleven metres above its normal flood level. Then the riverbanks start to crumble. On Mashatu Game Reserve frantic horses are thrashing around in the rising water. Hay bales two metres high fly past, bouncing like rubber balls. Saddles and wheelbarrows sit in the tops of trees. Ruff manages to break down the paddock gate, herd the horses through the gap and chase them out into the wild. The horses of Limpopo Valley Horse Safaris spend most of their time out grazing and know the lie of the land; most of the horses return but not Zulu. He is thought to be lost to the scourges of the Bushveld. Years pass before Zulu is discovered to be not only alive and well, but running as the lead stallion of a herd of wild zebras. He is recaptured and returned to the safari stables as a much bolder and wiser stallion – knowledge he passes on to the other horses as well as the humans of Limpopo Valley. Following in the footsteps of Jock of the Bushveld, Running Wild is an African story for all ages. It is a tale of resilience, of courage and endurance, a book that will uplift, enrich and warm every lover of the African bush.